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count against

British

verb

(intr, preposition) to have influence to the disadvantage of

your bad timekeeping will count against you

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

count against Idioms

Be disadvantageous to, as in His earnings this year will count against his Social Security benefits. This idiom uses count in the sense of “make a reckoning,” in this case negative. [Early 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Sometimes the extra leverage doesn’t count against the funds’ legal limits, because the debt resides off their balance sheets.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

The British squad have not let that count against them, though.

From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026

His partner for that success, Andrew Novak, is unlikely to have done enough to warrant selection though and Griffin's relative inexperience at this level may count against him.

From BBC • Aug. 27, 2025

In a 2-and-0 count against Suarez, he launched a center-cut fastball deep into the left-field stands.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2025

“It still had a willow-patterned shell, d’you think that’ll count against me?”

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023